Cleon
(
Κλέων). An Athenian, the son of a tanner, and said
himself to have exercised that trade. Of extraordinary impudence and little courage, slow in
the field, but forward and noisy in the assembly, corrupt, but boastful of integrity, and
supported by a coarse but ready eloquence, he gained such consideration by flattering the
lower orders that he became the head of a party. By an extraordinary train of circumstances he
came off victorious in the affair of
Sphacteria
(q.v.), the Athenian populace having chosen him one of their generals. Elated upon this with
the idea that he possessed military talents, he caused himself to be appointed commander of an
expedition into Thrace. He was slain in a battle at Amphipolis against Brasidas, the Spartan
general, B.C. 422.
It is probably unfortunate in the interest of historical truth that the accounts we have of
Cleon's personality exist only in the writings of Thucydides and a partisan play,
The
Knights, of Aristophanes, both of whom were violently prejudiced against Cleon, the
former personally and the latter politically. For some remarks on this head, see the history
of Grote.